43 Folders

43 Folders feed subscription icon - Shiny! Drowning in email? Try Inbox Zero to learn sane tips for dealing with high-volume email. And don’t miss the free Inbox Zero video. »

Login or register

Register for free on 43 Folders to comment on articles, post to our forum, customize your visits, and much more. Current users can login now.

Burn Calories Trying to Catch Your Keyboard

treaddesk.jpgTired of trying to fit exercise into your busy work schedule? Sure you are. Lucky for you there’s the TreadDesk, which lets you walk while you work! Not convinced? Then you’re just too lazy to click through. Here, tubby:

You don’t have to be a health expert to know that walking is beneficial to the human body. Unfortunately though, most people that are “tied to their desk” all day, have never had the option to walk at work, until now.

By walking at a slower pace (1.0 to 2.0) you can type and talk on the phone as you normally would and easily walk anywhere from 3-6 miles every day. Even at a slow pace, you can burn up to 600 calories a day, WITHOUT GOING ON A DIET.

Did you see that? Walking is good, Thomas Jefferson says so. For anywhere from $695 to $4,000, you can install one of these babies in your office, and it does wonders for your concentration.

You think I’m joking? I just burned 62 calories writing this sentence. Here, I’ll show you a chart of all the miles I’ve walked at work … here … let me just grab it … hold on … almost got it … ow. Debbie! How do you turn this thing off?

(via Deadspin and the Deuce of Davenport)


4 Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
juuble's picture

$4000!

If someone told me that I can walk while being on my computer for that much money, I would tell them that I would rather use it as glue paper to rip off my chest hairs. Waste of money in a world that is running out of it.

pete powerpoint's picture

Re: Burn Calories Trying to Catch Your Keyboard

i am guessing that this is quite good for you eye hand coordination! On the otherhand this looks like the best diet ever! Now you can play games while loosing weight!

Merlin Mann's picture

Re: Burn Calories Trying to Catch Your Keyboard

This probably reflects my age and dreadful lack of coordination, but that looks like my perfect tooth-knocking-out machine. :-)

EmSaidSo's picture

It is great

I have set up an older laptop like this on my treadmill. I don’t do actual “work” on it, but I can easily spend an hour and a half on it reading emails, looking at my friends’ photos on Facebook, and catching up on the blogs and sites on my RSS reader.

Don’t think “I wouldn’t want to work that way”. Think “How can I get off the computer and off my ass, which is becoming larger by the day.” Instead think: “There must be some way I can make walking on the treadmill enticing.”

I dislike exercising outside (I live in a huge city with limited green space and horrible pollution), I dislike going all the way to a gym (takes more time and costs a lot, and I dislike crowded, noisy spaces), so the treadmill has always been attractive to me. Only my treadmill had hardly been used in the first year and a half I had it by anyone but my cat (she loves walking on it). Then I read about people setting up computers with their machines. I took a simple shelf out of my home office and set it across the bars— it is sturdy enough— and placed my old laptop on it….I loved it!

I set it at speed 4, elevation 4. This keeps my heart within the specified “aerobic zone” yet allows me to type and read as I go. Sure, I can’t type fast on it, but I can edit papers and write basic stuff. Recently I have started writing some fan fiction while I walk on my treadmill— it is light and silly and gives me a real break from my day. I get so caught up in what I am doing that I can easily go for an hour and a half and not even be aware that I am working out. I sude to get so caught up in my work that I could not exercise, so this is a great compromise. Now I do my non-essential computer stuff while walking. Sweet.

I do not, however, do the “walk all day at a slow speed” thing. I have read that walking slowly at low elevation for hours is bad for treadmills, even when the silicon lubricant is liberally applied. They simply are not made for slow speeds. That’s why I go for 4 x 4 and keep it to 60-90 minutes.

It’s great. I look forward to my sessions, which have become like a guilty pleasure only there is nothing to feel guilty about since I am doing what my body needs most to lose my computer-butt. I feel I have finally set up an exercise system I will be able to stick with.

 
EXPLORE 43Folders THE GOOD STUFF

An Oblique Strategy:
Discard an axiom


STAY IN THE LOOP:

Subscribe with Google Reader

Subscribe on Netvibes

Add to Technorati Favorites

Subscribe on Pageflakes

Add RSS feed

The Podcast Feed

Inbox Zero

The original 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way. Don’t miss the free video of Merlin’s Inbox Zero presentation.

Get Started with ‘GTD’

David Allen’s popular productivity book and the system on which it’s based help turn ‘stuff’ into actions that support valuable outcomes.